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HBOOKS

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Director: Leslie Howsam FRSC

HISTORY BOOKS / BOOK HISTORIES (HBOOKS) grows out of Leslie Howsam’s decade-long interest in exploring historical writing (in books and periodicals) from the perspective of the history of the book. It builds upon her monograph Past into Print: the Publishing of History in Britain 1850-1950 (2009) and her recent article, “Mediated histories: how did Victorian periodicals parse the past?” appearing in Victorian Periodicals Review 50, no. 4 (external link, opens in new window)  (2017). 

The research basis for “Mediated histories” is HiPPo (History in the (Victorian) Periodical Press Online) a database developed over many years by the work of research assistants funded by a SSHRC grant. HiPPo provides metadata and commentary on some 2700 articles and book reviews in 19 periodicals, published between 1809 and 1916. It is currently hosted at the University of Windsor on the website historybooks (external link)   which also includes “Sources for the Study of Historians in Britain. “Sources” lists over 1000 practitioners of historical research, with brief annotations about the locations of archival, print, and digital resources.

Visit the new HBooks (external link, opens in new window)  website.